I belong to the latter group, not because I believe that upon its swearing in, the days of the Messiah will descend upon us, nor because this government is the government I have dreamed of ever since Benjamin Netanyahu’s long premiership started to turn into a nightmare and pose a real threat to Israel’s fragile democracy and embroiled society.
In the past week, I have heard rabbis, right-wing politicians and commentators refer to the prospective government as a “memshelet shmad” (a government that intends to destroy Judaism), a “memshelet zadon” (a government of malice), “memshelet sin’ah” (a government of hatred) and even a “Judenrat” (Jews who cooperated with the Nazis in the administration of the Jewish community in the Third Reich).
The latter term was used by attorney Yoram Sheftel on Channel 20 last week, who argued that this government will be a prisoner of Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas, who heads an Islamic Movement party, and that during the Second World War the Palestinian Islamic movement was allied with Hitler (as indeed it was).
Another worrying phenomenon is the frequent use made by religious and right-wing spokesmen of the term “bogdim” in reference to the potential participants in the “government of change,” and left-wingers in general.
In all the perfectly legal demonstrations outside the homes of the MKs from Yamina (whom the demonstrators wish to convince to refuse to support the new government), placards are borne with the words “smolanim bodgim” (leftist traitors) on them – that is illegal incitement, in so far as bogdim is understood to mean traitors.
The use of the word “bogdim” can be confusing. When right-wingers protest against Naftali Bennett – our prospective prime minister – that he is being “unfaithful to his voters,” they also use the term “bogged.” The problem is that in Hebrew both “traitor” and “being unfaithful” translate into “bogged.”
Back in the mid-1990s, when Rabin was called a bogged during mass rallies, what was meant was “traitor.” Netanyahu, at the time, had the decency to say in reply “he is not a traitor – he is wrong.” But that didn’t save Rabin.
Netanyahu himself is not part of the choir that is making all these awful statements – at least not publicly. However, this does not mean that he is not inciting against the government that might or might not be sworn in, later this week, or next week.
When on May 28 Netanyahu warned hysterically that a “left-wing government” headed by Bennett “will endanger the Land of Israel, the State of Israel, and the army of Israel,” this was unsubstantiated incitement.
Also, the fact that he argues that he won the elections, but that they were stolen from him (sound familiar?) can be seen as incitement against the new government, because it is untrue. Netanyahu had 28 days after the recent elections to form a government, and failed – just as he failed after the first round of elections in April 2019, and the second round of elections in September 2020. In March 2020 he managed to form a government with the support of Benny Gantz, but lost interest the moment he thought he might have a chance to gain a right-wing-religious majority in a fourth round of elections.
True, the government that will apparently be sworn in soon is undergoing a contorted birth. True, some of Yamina’s voters might not have been aware of the fact that Bennett did not exclude a “government of change” with the “just not Bibi” camp, in the event that a right-wing government under Netanyahu would not materialize, or did not believe that Netanyahu would fail again.
Incidentally, the reason he failed, besides the fact that many of his former colleagues simply no longer believe a word he says, has been the fact that the Religious Zionist Party refused to join a government enjoying the support of the Arab Ra’am Party – without whose support neither side can form a government these days.
As to Gideon Sa’ar’s voters, they all knew in advance that for him a government led by Netanyahu was not an option.
In fact, the “government of change” (if it materializes) will be much less the result of “theft” of votes than Netanyahu’s government with Gantz was. Both governments are/were based on broken promises to the voters. In the case of the new government, we are speaking of, at most, three of the Yamina MKs being elected by voters who expected a right-wing government. In the case of the 2020 “national emergency government,” we are speaking of just under half the votes of Blue and White (15) being lost to the “just not Bibi” camp as a result of Gantz’s decision to go with Bibi because of the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite his election promises not to do so.
The latest subject of incitement concerns the claim that in their negotiations with Abbas, Yair Lapid and Bennett “handed the Negev over to the Arabs.”
Though we do not know the details of the agreement (they will be finalized and published with the rest of the coalition agreements the day before the government will be sworn in, if and when that will happen), we do know that while there is willingness to discuss the various problems of the Bedouin inhabitants of the Negev – including the unrecognized Bedouin settlements, the tearing down of illegal construction, the problem of social services and education, the problem of illegal arms and crime (in the Bedouin sector as in the rest of the Arab sector) – nothing specific has been promised.
Of course, there is no way that many of these problems can be resolved without certain areas being handed over to the Bedouin, in addition to financing and services, but to spread the word that “the ‘government of change’ is going to hand the Negev over to the Bedouin” (who have lived there for centuries) is simply an outright lie, designed to “prove” that Bennett’s government will be unpatriotic, un-Zionist and generally bad for the Jews.
KNESSET SPEAKER Yariv Levin has announced that he plans to inform the Knesset on Monday that Lapid and Bennett have managed to form a government, and set a date for its being sworn in.
However, this does not mean that Netanyahu has given up trying to prevent this government from being formed by enticing one or two deserters to change sides, while the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Nadav Argaman, published a message on Saturday night in which he warned that the violent and inciteful discourse that is going on around the formation of the new government, especially in the social media, could lead to violence, and even loss of life, and ought to stop.
While the leaders of the prospective government are expressing careful optimism about the government actually coming into being, this week promises to be anything but calm, and even more nerve-racking than the last one was. And as the saying goes: “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” which in our case translates into “until 61 fingers are, or are not, raised to approve the new government.”
The writer was a researcher in the Knesset Research and Information Center until her retirement, and recently published a book in Hebrew, The Job of the Knesset Member – An Undefined Job, soon to appear in English.